Reverb 10 - Beautifully Different

Prompt: Beautifully different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different - you'll find they're what make you beautiful.

I have put off making this post all day. The question has bugged me on a couple of levels. First the use of the word Beautiful which is not a word I would typically use to describe myself. Second, it calls for tooting your own horn which is something I’m allergic to. From the other Reverb 10 posts that I’ve read today, I’m not the only one that feels this way.

I’ve never considered myself to be somebody who lights people up. That job is always taken by somebody else, not me. So, that leaves me with reflecting on things that make me different. Ah ha! Something that rings true. Lord knows, I am a bit of an odd duck.

While other people get stymied by the puzzles of life, I often can see the way through to the desired outcome. I love bringing order to chaos. I’ve managed to turn that into a career as a nonprofit accountant. I love the way my mission-focused clients who don’t “get” accounting understand when I can explain it to them in lay terms. I like helping people cut through the clutter, identify the question (which many others find to be remarkably difficult) and help them find the most logical answer.

When I’m not busy clarifying the problem and solving it, I’m busy looking for efficiencies. Nothing drives me nuttier than wasted efforts. Some people like the status quo, but others love the results when I take a 5 step process and narrow it down to 2.

Is my inner-nerd showing yet? How about responsibility, my pet virtue. I will always do what is needed. Perhaps this is why my parents made me their executor, my sister gave me her medical power of attorney, friends call me when crisis strikes, and in ten years my kids never once got forgotten at school. (As an aside, it amazes me how many kids get “forgotten” at least once!)

None of these things look beautiful to me. Oh how I’d like to claim physical beauty, charitable works, a giving nature. Instead I get logical, rational and responsible. Practical, yes. Beautiful , no. And yet they are the things that make me different, and therefore beautiful in my own way.